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Shotput Ventures

Saturday, February 28, 2009

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Welcome to SL #37! There has been quite a bit of discussion over the past year or so about the possibilities of a Y-Combinator type venture fund here in the Southeast. After a few failed efforts (notably Boostphase), we finally have one off the ground here in Atlanta. David Cummings and Sanjay Parekh, two of the founders of Shotput Ventures join us for a chat about this new venture model, the Atlanta early-stage scene, and other things that melt in the sun.

Mike brings the heat and rolls the bus over a group of entrepreneurs that just can’t seem to understand the value of someone else’s time. Another great selection of listener emails and a dash of StartupLounge humor to top it all off. Enjoy!

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Shownotes and Interview Questions:

As usual, we had lots of related follow-up questions and side discussions, but here is a good sampling of the questions we asked on the show:

Give us your 30-second elevator pitch
Have you modeled yourselves after any other funds or investors with a similar profile?
Why do we need Shotput Ventures here in Atlanta/Georgia? Why did you start Shotput?
Are you investing only in Atlanta-based or Georgia-based companies?
Talk about the Shotput Ventures model. Take us through your process?
How can such a small amount of cash ($15,000-$20,000 per venture, depending on team size) make an impact?
How did you come up with a 5-10% share?
Where are you getting your deal flow?
How many submissions have you had so far?
How do you evaluate the opportunities?
Where are you in the fund operating process? Are you meeting the timeline provided on your site?
What are the keys to making Shotput Ventures successful?
Now that you’re investors, what are you learning about the market or the investing business?
Can you talk a bit about how you recruited the handful of principals behind Shotput?
How does setting a finite end date (August 10) alter or impact your investing model? Why do you have a finite end date?
Is the economy affecting your model at all?
If this is successful, will there be a Shotput II?
How is the rest of the venture community responding?
What will define success for Shotput Ventures?
What are your thoughts on the Atlanta startup scene?
Listener Emails Read and Answered on the Show:

Dale: Gentlemen, first off I want to thank you for all that Startuplounge does for the community in Atlanta. I appreciate the efforts and look forward to thanking you personally at the upcoming February event. I am getting very close to launching my own startup as a first-time entrepreneur. I know that bootstrapping will only take me so far, and I will probably need to raise a small round of outside capital at some point. I know that before any investor puts their cash into a deal they go through what is called “due diligence”. I am petrified of this, as I have never been through it before. Can you shed any light on this process, and specifically what I’m going to be in for?

BigSkyCountry: If all I have is an idea, is there a resource such as an incubator that will help me put together the technical team to help bring it to life?

“YellowJacket” Mark: Scott and Mike I love this podcast! … my question: what makes a great company name these days? I’m stuck, please help.

Roberto: Everyone says that a “down” market is a great time to start a company, especially if you have the wherewithall and the means to float the business. But what if you don’t have the cash? Should I just go get a steady day job right now and play the waiting game until the economy stabilizes and I have some more cash available personally? I’m worried that investors are on the sideline right now and won’t be interested in my deal.

Guest Bios:
David Cummings, CEO, Hannon Hill

A business and technology enthusiast, David Cummings founded Hannon Hill Corporation, an Inc. 500 company, in January 2001. Hannon Hill’s goal has always been to provide strategic web content management (WCM) solutions, with an emphasis on personalized customer service.

A WCM subject matter expert, David’s articles have been published on O’Reilly’s XML.com and OnJava.com, in addition to popular web development sites such as SitePoint.com. He has presented at the Silicon Valley Web Guild, Silicon Networks, Atlanta Electronic Commerce Forum, and the Independent Computer Consultants Association. With more than 10 years of software development experience, David is an experienced programmer and has written code for commercial applications in Ruby, Java, PHP, ASP, and Visual C++.

David is a member of the Entrepreneur’s Organization and serves as chairman of the board of the Technology Association of Georgia Content Management Society. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, David earned a bachelor of science degree in economics from Duke University and studied at the London School of Economics. David blogs at DavidCummings.org.

Sanjay Parekh, Founder, Startup Riot…